Light Strikes Twice
by Harmony Goldstar
Summary: Light Strikes Twice- The first time it was lightning, the second time it was Lightman. Both instances change Gillian's life forever. -The case I made up for use in this story mentions rape, so be forewarned. It is not at all graphic, just mentioned.-
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, here's one of the little stories I referenced in my authors note in this morning's chapter of Two Black Cadillacs. Any errors are due to my dictation app's inability to listen correctly. I still can't type. :( Hope you enjoy!**

"Dr. Lightman, Dr. Foster, the DC police dropped off this case file late last night," Heidi said, holding out the file. Cal grabbed it and tossed it onto his desk.

"Thanks Heidi," Gillian said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. Heidi left the room and Cal snatched up the folder and began to read.

"Let's go Foster, I'll brief you on the way," Cal said when he finished reading. Gillian set her hot chocolate down his desk and ducked into her office for her coat and bag.

"So, what's the case?" She asked as Cal drove.

"Woman was raped, and she identified her attacker as Kyle Thompson."

"What's the catch?" Gillian asked intrigued. There had to be one; it sounded too straight forward for there not to be.

"Kyle Thompson claims that he doesn't believe in sex."

Cal missed Gillian's moment of nervousness because he was driving.

"So we have to figure out if he's lying?" Gillian asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.

"Something like that. The police had to let him go because he passed the polygraph. There wasn't enough evidence to hold him."

"Oh."

It was a long drive to the town where Thompson lived, and there was no conversation between Cal and Gillian after that.

Gillian set up the video camera in the Thompson's living room. She talked to Thompson's wife, and their two adopted daughters about Kyle and their beliefs. Cal watched. Loker and Torres were watching the footage from the office.

Cal was unconvinced that Kyle's wife and daughters were telling the truth. Kyle himself had yet to return from work. Gillian stalled for a while asking questions about the families beliefs that her body language told Cal she knew the answer to. He didn't pay it too much attention, and pushed it to the back of his mind when the guy they came to talk to walked into the room.

After questioning Kyle for about fifteen minutes, they learned that he had a twin brother who he hadn't spoken to in years and that he was telling the truth about his beliefs.

"Do you have any pictures of your brother?" Gillian asked.

"Not many. He doesn't share our beliefs. Last I knew, he lived in California," Kyle said. He pulled a picture out of his wallet and handed it to Gillian.

"That's James," Kyle said. James didn't look at all like Kyle. Where Kyle's hair was dark and his skin tan, James was blonde and very pale. Gillian sighed, showed Cal the picture and handed it back to Kyle.

"Thank you for your time," she said.

When they got back to the car, Cal started in, just like she knew he would.

"He's got to be our guy. I must have missed something."

"We'll go back to the office and watch the tapes. I couldn't very well keep asking the same questions over and over again."

"I'm not buying their beliefs. It's a load of bull, I mean, how could anyone live..."

"Not now Cal," Gillian said. "Please."

When they returned to the office they were met by Loker and Torres.

"So, what was it like what?" Loker asked.

"Interesting," Gillian replied, "Kyle didn't seem to be lying."

"Interesting? It's ridiculous. He has to be lying. Anyone who doesn't believe in sex has to be completely off their rocker. That guy is like, my age, and he's claiming he's a virgin," Cal said, making his opinion clear.

"Completely bonkers," Loker agreed.

Gillian walked away, heading for her office and a nice chocolate bar. Cal followed her, continuing to insult Kyle Thompson's beliefs.

"Get back to work Cal," Gillian snapped when she reached office and it became clear that Cal was going to follow her inside. Before he could reply, she slammed her office door in his face.

Cal headed to the break room to get lunch wondering what had gotten Gillian so upset. He poked his head into her office half hour later, and was greeted with a,

"You're with Torres on this one. I'm busy."

He didn't dare argue, and retreated to the lab to look over the footage. He had Sandra Fraiser come in, and Torres talked to her. She seemed pretty certain that Kyle was her attacker, but he wasn't lying about his beliefs.

"Torres, finds James Thompson and bring him in."

"Why? He looks nothing like Kyle."

"Just a hunch. Do it."

Torres left the room, and Cal slumped over in his chair. Frankly, he didn't care about the case. He went over the whole day in his head and tried to figure out if he'd said something to upset Gillian. He came up with nothing, and rose from his chair to go talk to her when Torres returned with a man that looked very much like Kyle Thompson, and two police officers. The only difference Cal noticed was that he had a scar by his right ear and Kyle didn't.

"Put him in the cube," Cal said.

"Are you sure that's the right guy?" he asked.

"Positive. He was brought in by the cops for running a red light and his license was expired," Torres said.

"Looks like he isn't still in California."

Cal entered the cube.

"What's your name?"

"James Thompson."

"You know Kyle?"

"Yeah. What a loser! That guy doesn't know what he's missing."

"What is he missing?" Cal asked.

"Women."

"Did you sexually assault this woman?" Cal asked suddenly, holding up Sandra's picture.

"No. Never seen her before in my life."

Outside the cube, Torres said to Loker and the cops,

"Head nod yes, while saying no."

"And when he said he's never seen her before, he does a little shrug," Loker said.

"He doesn't believe a word he said," Torres concluded.

Cal was explaining exactly this to James as the two cops entered the cube to arrest him.

"Looks like Kyle's off the hook," Cal said as he reentered the lab.

"Torres, Loker, take care of anything else that needs to be done with this case," he snapped as he sped out of the lab. The door clicked shut on his last words, cutting them off short.

**A/N: Please review! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Second and last chapter... hope you enjoy! & Please review!**

He opened the door to Gillian's office and poked his head in. Gillian was standing behind her desk, with her back to him looking out the window.

"Love?"

"Yes Cal," she said without turning around.

"I solved the case. It was the brother."

"That's... that's great Cal," Gillian said. She turned around, and Cals heart did a little flip-flop. She looked hurt and definitely upset about something.

"Gill, are you okay?"

"No, Cal. I'm not," she snapped. "You strut around and insult people and their beliefs and I can't take it anymore."

Cal was quite confused. It had never bothered her this much before. But now she stood behind her desk and the tears were threatening to fall.

"Alec is one of those people Cal," Gill said, and the tears started falling. Cal crossed the room and gathered her in his arms.

"I'm sorry love, I didn't know."

"No, you didn't," Gill snapped. She was still mad at him, even as he held her.

"When I married him, I thought he would change his mind. I was young and I loved him."

"But he never did?"

"Never. We never had sex. We never even slept in the same bed," Gillian said through her tears. She wasn't sure why she was crying. Cal had apologized. He cared about her. Alec was going now, and she could do what she wanted.

"So you might be able to have children?" Cal asked, aware that this subject meant treading on thin ice.

"The doctors say the chances are slim," Gillian said, and Cal felt his shirt get even wetter as she tried to stop crying.

"But no one knows for sure Cal, because I'm... I'm a virgin."

Gillian pulled away from him then, and she looks so small, so hurt, and ashamed. After all, Cal had given her his opinion on that just hours before.

"Love, that's nothing to be ashamed of," Cal said, reaching out to her again. He wished he could go back in time and take back his words. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and stepped into his embrace.

"You have all the time in the world to change that if you want to."

"I know. Even since the divorce, no man has ever seen me naked. Not even a doctor. I don't know...if I can change that."

"It's okay love. You don't have to. It doesn't matter." She pulled away again, and kissed his cheek.

"I'm sorry Cal."

"It's alright love," he said. "Come for dinner?"

"Sure," she said, and picked up her bag and jacket, and followed him from the office. In the relative safety of her car, she looked at herself in the mirror, and carefully fixed her make up before driving to Cal's house. He answered the door when she knocked, and took her coat and bag for her.

They sat on the couch, and noting her open body language, Cal asked,

"Something you want to talk about love?"

"I know what made you who you are, but you don't know anything about me," Gill said.

"What made you who you are then?" Cal asked. He had wondered for years, but she never wanted to talk about it, and he never pushed. He didn't want to risk losing her.

"I was twenty years old, in college, on my way back to my dorm from the library during a storm. It was dark, pouring buckets and thundering like hell. I could see my dorm across the common, and I thought everything would be okay.

"In the middle of the common, I thought I heard someone say my name, so I stopped and turned around. There was no one there. The next thing I remember, I was in the hospital, and I could remember every voice I had ever heard."

"What happened Gill?" Cal asked, his voice full of concern.

"I got struck by lightning. It messed with my brain, so now I can never forget a voice. I can never forget that night, Cal, because when you get struck by lightning, it leaves a scar that fades over time. But mine was really cool looking, and I was twenty. I got a tattoo of the scar."

"You? Gillian Foster? You have a tattoo?"

"Yep. And no men have ever seen it," she told Cal with a smirk.

"It's pretty cool, even though it reminds me of the lightning strike, because now it reminds me that I wouldn't have met you if it hadn't happened." Cal smiled at this. He didn't know how he would have gotten by without her.

"I don't know what I would do without you Cal," Gill said, voicing Cal's thoughts as she nervously played with the bottom button on her shirt.

"You'd be at the Pentagon making a lot more money than you are here, and you'd be happy, because I wouldn't be accidentally insulting you."

"Cal! I'm happy here. Right here, right now, with you," Gill said taking his hand in both of hers. She brought it to rest on the hem of shirt. Taking the hint, Cal asked,

"Are you sure?" Gillian nodded, and began unbuttoning her shirt. She pulled it off over her shoulders and watched Cal's face as he stared at the intricate design on her side that creeped out onto her stomach. Her tattoo followed the designs of the Lichtenburg scar that had traced her creamy skin nearly fifteen years before.

Cal looked up into Gillian's eyes, and put a hand on her knee. She slid closer to him and took his hand in her smaller one, placing it on her side, covering part of the tattoo. She put her arms around him, and he held her, knowing that she trusted him. She had to, to make him the first man to see her tattoo.

Gill pulled away, and placed her hands over Cal's so that he wouldn't move them. They sat having a conversation about trust, without words.

"Yikes! Dad, a little warning would be nice. Should I be leaving?" Emily asked as she walked into the room. Cal removed his hands from Gillian and grabbed his jacket to cover her.

"Don't worry Cal. She's already seen it," Gill said. Cal looked from Emily to Gillian and back to Emily.

"Stop it Dad. Gill asked me to zip up a dress for her once."

"Alec..."

"It's okay love. I understand," Cal interrupted.

"Are you staying for dinner Gill?" Emily asked, now completely unfazed by the fact that Gill was sitting on the couch in her living room, with her father, without a shirt on.

"Yes, she is," Cal said.

"Yay! I'll be in my room until then. When I come back down, you both had better be wearing clothes," Emily said. Cal chuckled, and Gillian gave a little embarrassed laugh. Cal stood up to start dinner and Gillian put her shirt back on and buttoned it.

"I never thought I'd see the day that you were willingly in my house, half naked," Cal said.

"I wasn't half naked Cal. I still had a bra on."

"Don't ruin my fantasy love," Cal said, and Gillian swatted him with a towel. She wasn't sure whether to be pleased or creeped out.

"Hey!" Cal exclaimed as the towel hit him.

Gillian settled on being pleased.

Standing just around the corner, Emily was smiling mischievously.


End file.
